Gas Choice

Thank you all for your input.

Bumpyroad wrote:
how can one tell by looking at his lawnmower, leaf blower, snow blower, etc. and determine if it is ethanol compatible or not?
bumpy

All new small equipment is designed to run on E-10 gas. Look in your owners manual, look online, or contact the mfg and ask if you are still not sure.

Here's one of the actual problems: depending on how long the equipment is stored, the gas in the supply lines, tank, or carb may oxidize and therefore start to accumulate solids or not burn well. Additionally, some of the gas supply tubing may deteriorate over time and start to fail. This is especially true with small two cycle gear like string trimmers and blowers. It has nothing to do with Ethanol. Typically, I will replace two cycle supply lines with gas tubing noted for longevity, i.e. Tygon.

Here's an outlier that involves storage and gas: I serviced and made ready for storage 125 gas engines of different sizes. All the equipment was prepared alike, full gas in the tank and correct amount of stabilizer added. 5 months later when the equipment was brought out of storage, all of the engines started and ran well except for all 10 Kawasaki 4 hp engines. They all had clogged main jets. The way that engine is built, the air supply was free to enter the main jet cylinder and caused deterioration of the fuel. The following years, those engines were drained of fuel and steel tanks fogged to prevent rust.

Lesson learned: Not all engines may work with a set Winterization discipline. Sometimes, it is better to drain fuel, being sure that all gasoline is gone. An owner could use white gas to fill everything but that is costly. In the Spring, the owner would have to drain that white gas and dispose. It seems the Honda generators benefit from draining all gas but I don't own or work on them for Winterization so can't confirm that.

Grit dog wrote:

coolbreeze01 wrote:
It takes me 2 or 3 years to burn 5 gal of Chevron in my mower. Works just as well at 3 years as the day I bought it.

Maybe you should only buy 1-2 gal of mower gas. Unless you only get out to the gas station every 2-3 years.
Btw, yes old gas will still burn. Try leaving a tank full in it for 3 years without running it and get back to us.

It appears Chevron is the key. Give it a try and get back to us.

Bumpyroad wrote:
how can one tell by looking at his lawnmower, leaf blower, snow blower, etc. and determine if it is ethanol compatible or not?
bumpy

Two good clues:
If it is over 20 years old
OR
If the model you bought cost less than half of the average of other models available, as in Made in China.

JaxDad wrote:
If you do the math, using real world numbers, not the EPA fiction, you'll find the gain in mileage using unadulterated gas is greater than the increase in price to buy it.

Grossly inaccurate assumption.

It depends on: Your vehicle's engine and the price spread.

I've done the math.....on several different engines at real world prices and your claim has NEVER turned out to be true. At best it was a mathematical tie.

Note: None of my tests was done with a high-performance engine.

OH48Lt wrote:

Ethanol fuel exists today only because of mis-lead politicians in the EPA and the farm lobbyists. It isn't there on its own merits.

Your opinion. A biased way to look at the issue.

Living in Ohio you can't appreciate breathing the brown air that still is present in some areas......even with reduced pollution fuels.

Both the previous additives proved to be carcinogens. Would you rather have your grandkids subjected to lead poisoning ??

Maybe you would rather go back to the perfect time......when all we had was horses.

All small equipment that I know of is ethanol "compatible" - meaning it will run on ethanol. Ethanol won't damage a running engine. It may not run quite as well, and possibly have less power, but it will run. Many times the difference in power is not really noticeable - until you switch back to "good" fuel and realize how good the engine should run.

The big problem with ethanol for small engines is long term storage, and/or intermittent use. As many people have pointed out in this thread for long term storage, extra steps and extra additives should be used to make sure the equipment will start the next time you need it.

For my commercial mowers, I have replaced the rubber fuel lines with fuel lines made out of material designed to resist the melting effect of ethanol on rubber (I forget the name of the material). It is always interesting to touch a rubber fuel line and have it collapse with little effort.

In my fire department, for small engines we have replaced the fuel lines and cleaned out the carbs (and replaced carbs when needed) over the years and now run all small engines on a specifically designed non-ethanol fuel for use in engines that are stored for long periods, but then need to run instantly when needed. It works out to over $15 a gallon, but so far it has worked as advertised and we are happy with it.

The "cost" of running ethanol fuel adds up in all sorts of ways, many of which are not always obvious.

how can one tell by looking at his lawnmower, leaf blower, snow blower, etc. and determine if it is ethanol compatible or not?
bumpy

coolbreeze01 wrote:
It takes me 2 or 3 years to burn 5 gal of Chevron in my mower. Works just as well at 3 years as the day I bought it.

Maybe you should only buy 1-2 gal of mower gas. Unless you only get out to the gas station every 2-3 years.
Btw, yes old gas will still burn. Try leaving a tank full in it for 3 years without running it and get back to us.

There's lots of mythical, anecdotal inaccurate information about ethanol mixed gas. There also appears to be regional differences in how some gas blends work. I notice more West Coast complaints than Midwest complaints, FWIW.

In MN, we've had 10% Ethanol blends for years. It almost killed any complaints about fuel icing and the parts stores no longer have a display at the front of the stores selling fuel deicers or water eliminators. Heet brand is suffering.

FWIW, I've maintained fleets of both large and small gas powered vehicles and equipment. Also have been involved in the Marine side but got away from that. My experience is that most small engine equipment does not suffer from Ethanol added gasoline. These machines are engineered to run on that fuel. For practical Winterization of equipment, I always filled machine tanks full and added Stabil or other fuel additive to prevent oxidation of the gas over a long winter. In a fleet situation, supply tanks are large underground tanks and not susceptible to fuel vagaries in Winter. My gas can at the house is not the same. I leave it uncorked, only putting a cap on my chainsaw and other two cycle cans. The 6 gallon plastic generic can may or may not get fuel stabilizer depending on my wits and time. It doesn't seem to matter much. My standby generator for the house gets fuel stabilizer because I need 100% certainty it will start. It gets 10% Ethanol blend like all the rest.

IN MN, we are now seeing the advent of E15, labeled as "Premium fuel" at the pump. It is sold at, typically, a $.05 discount compared to regular (E10) and much less than "Premium" or Midgrade. I ran 10 gallons through my '03 5.4 V8 F250 and didn't notice a deviation in mileage. I was hoping for better mileage but it was an unscientific baseline and results were close to pump gas regular.